Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry) is putting together a new film based on Stephen King‘s debut novel Carrie. Brian De Palma’s movie starring Sissy Spacek and John Travolta remains one of De Palma’s most entertaining films, packed as it is with over-the-top characterization and De Palma’s trademark love of split-screen imagery. So my first reaction to hearing about another new Carrie (this isn’t the first remake of the story) is ‘why?’ But having a female director is one way to make this seem like a worthwhile endeavor.

Now we’ve got the first indications of potential casting, as info has emerged about two possible choices to play the adolescent telekinetic Carrie White: 15-year-old Chloë Moretz (Kick-Ass, Dark Shadows) and 24-year-old Haley Bennett (Terrence Malick’s film formerly called Lawless).

Update:Deadline says that Moretz has been offered the role, and that after testing last weekend, she more or less got the job immediately.

We’ve seen a version of this Sleeping Beauty trailer once before, when it premiered in April ahead of the film’s debut at the Cannes Film Festival. In the months since, the slightly controversial film, in which Sucker Punch star Emily Browning plays a very odd and specific sort of prostitute, has been overshadowed by other bigger, more controversial movies.

Sleeping Beauty still looks like an unusual, potentially unsettling experience, however, and a film with some gorgeous cinematography. (Whether that cinematography is beautiful for its own sake or really serves the story remains to be seen, for most of us.) So now that a slightly different trailer has shown up online, it’s a good time to take a moment and remind ourselves that the film exists. Check out the US trailer below. Read More »

We’re not even halfway through 2011, but it’s safe to say that Zack Snyder‘s Sucker Punch has been one of the year’s biggest disappointments. When Snyder premiered footage from the film at San Diego Comic Con 2010, many fans (myself included) ate it up, anticipating a mind-bending, genre-blending, roller coaster ride of geeky goodness and that anticipation built with each and every piece of material released. Then the film came out. And it was incoherent, boring and – frankly – tame.

Maybe that’ll change on June 28 when Warner Bros. releases an R-rated, extended cut of the film on the Blu-ray with an extra 18 minutes of footage. After the jump, read about one of the extended scenes and more. Read More »

Topher Grace has joined the cast of Gently Down the Stream, which already has some prominent actors on board: Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Katherine Heigl and Amanda Seyfried. Justin Zackham wrote and will direct the story of a slightly awkward family romance. Specifically, De Niro and Keaton are a couple and father to Topher Grace’s character. But he’s also got an adopted brother, and that guy has a sister, and Topher Grace falls for her. Oops. [Deadline]

After the break, 50 Cent gets his best role ever, and the indie thriller Magic, Magic lands three young actresses. Read More »

With this poster, the Julia Leigh film Sleeping Beauty continues to look like the arthouse alternate-reality Sucker Punch. Emily Browning stars in the movie as a student who becomes a prostitute specializing in an unusual service: she ‘works’ while drugged into slumber, and cannot remember her clients after they take advantage of her. The poster is a little bit American Apparel, a little bit Sofia Coppola, and quite pretty, but combined with the known plot and the look on Emily Browning’s face, there’s an uncomfortable undercurrent there, too. The trailer (embedded again below) is equally gorgeous and unsettling. Both are after the break. Read More »

One of the films officially announced as part of the competition slate for this year’s Cannes Film Festival is Sleeping Beauty, which tells the story of a prostitute in a very strange brothel. There is now a gorgeous, if oppressive and strange, trailer for the film that, thanks in part to the central presence of Emily Browning, makes it look a bit like Sucker Punch filtered through an extreme art-house sensibility. Read More »

It’s December 2009, and I’m in Vancouver Canada. Earlier this morning we saw the first press screening of James Cameron’s Avatar with an audience of Vancouver press and filmmakers which included District 9 director Neill Blomkamp. A few hours later, I’m standing in a green screen stage at Vancouver Film Studios. This is the production centre where a lot of sci-fi television series are filmed, shows such as Dark Angel, Smallville, Battlestar Galactica, Bionic Woman, Reaper, Caprica, Eureka, Fringe, Human Target and films such as X-Men II and 3, I Robot, Fantastic Four 1 and 2, The A-Team and 2012.

Zack Snyder filmed some of Watchmen on this lot, and has returned to Canada to shoot his latest — Sucker Punch.

Snyder even pushed our set visit back a couple hours so that we could attend that local screening of Avatar, allowing us the ability to see the movie at the same time as the press at the nationwide press screenings. The fact that Snyder was able to arrange this is mind-boggling for a bunch of different reasons, but especially considering studio politics — Avatar was being released by Fox and Sucker Punch was a Warner Bros production. And most other filmmakers probably would have said “Fuck Avatar”, not wanting to be out-done — how can your set visit possibly compete with a film which was billed as a cinema changing event? But that’s the kind of confident filmmaker Snyder has become.

A helicopter is situated about twenty feet above us, and Snyder is on a ladder talking to Jena Malone, one of the four main stars of the film. Jena Malone plays Rocket, beside her is Emily Browning, who plays Baby Doll, Abbie Cornish, who plays Sweet Pea, Vanessa Hudgens who plays Blondie and Jamie Chung who plays Amber. Snyder explains how the helicopter will bank to the left in the upcoming wide shot. Emily asks how far they’re jumping in the real world, and Zack quickly responds “About twenty feet” before stopping himself and laughing “What real world?”

Warner Bros. has released a new movie trailer for Zack Snyder‘s new action fantasy film Sucker Punch, which stars Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens and Jamie Chung. It’s essentially a music video compilation of a bunch of kick-ass special effects-enhanced action sequences. It seems as if they got a bath of the final special effects shots approved and wanted to show them off to the public. Watch it now embedded after the jump. Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.Read More »

So last night we got what seems to be the first really reliable word on the casting of Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman: Viggo Mortensen is in talks to play the Huntsman. With Charlize Theron also in talks (to play the wicked queen) that leaves a couple major roles wide open. The pivotal one, obviously, is Snow White. The latest actresses mentioned in conjunction with the role are Kristen Stewart and Emily Browning (Sucker Punch, A Series of Unfortunate Events). Read More »